China Edging Closer to Tech Supremacy

Digital China

China Internet Report 2018:Comprehensive 97 page report about China’s vibrant internet ecosystem covering a high level view, with four overarching themes and a deep-dive by sector.

China’s Technology Sector Takes on Silicon Valley: China is pursuing perhaps the most ambitious and unorthodox industrial policy in its history, with tech ‘zones’, ‘sectors’, and cities popping up throughout China affording very favourable policies to domestic innovators in hopes to vastly accelerate progress. 2018 marks the first year where VC investment in China has outstripped the US.

Opinion: How Did China Leapfrog Everyone in eCommerce?: B2C ecommerce retail penetration in China, as measured by the share of retail sales that are transacted online, far exceeds that of any other market in the world. One of the theories behind this is that ecommerce has filled the gap created by a highly fragmented bricks and mortar market. For example, in the US the four largest grocers account for roughly half of the food market. In China, the top four grocers amount to just 5.7% of food retail spending.

The Rise of China as Global Tech Superpower: The largest tech conference in Asia took place in Hong Kong last week with the core debate on where China stands as a global tech leader, with strong sentiment that “China is leading and people elsewhere in the world have no clue.”

Chinese Consumers

Chinese Millennials are Identifying as ‘Spiritually Finnish’: A quirky insight into a very important understanding of the often introverted and solitary Millennials: “I believe that there are many more cases of ‘spiritually Finnish’ in our generation compared to our parents’ generation,” Chen says. For millennials who grew up under China’s one-child policy, isolation was the norm. “Now they find they can live alone happily,” she explains.

Chinese Tourists

WeChat Pay to Keep Overseas Focus on Outbound Tourism Instead of Offering More Local Wallets: Tencent’s WeChat Pay said it will not seek to offer more local payment wallets to overseas customers over the next three years and will remain focused on serving outbound Chinese tourists better in popular overseas destinations. WeChat Pay currently has local digital wallets in Hong Kong and Malaysia. The service is currently available in over 40 counties and regions across the world in 13 currencies.

Chinese Sports Market Points the Way Toward the Future of eCommerce: Ecommerce was the top trend at ISPO Shanghai earlier this month. Other trends included: 1. A growing number of Chinese citizens value performance; 2. Chinese consumers, and female Chinese consumers in particular, love the crossover of chic and functional sports fashion; 3. In the running segment, market shares can still be tapped selectively; and 4. The potential of the growing sports market in China is far from exhausted.